[theme music] [engine rumbles] As a chef, I've been privileged to travel to all corners of the globe.

But there are one small group of islands that, in my mind, has it all-- [energetic music] --from farmers to fishermen and great seafood.

[burbling] These are delicious, absolutely delicious.

Joining me on my journey, I'll be meeting some of my mates, who just happen to be some of the finest chefs in the entire world.

[laughs] Butter.

Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

Woo-hoo!

♪ ♪ I'm on the final stretch of my amazing trip around Great Britain, and I'm hitting the South West of England-- Bristol, to be exact.

[lively music] I've got local, award-winning Chef Romy Gill, MBE, as my tour guide.

This is going to be a great day.

Tell me about Bristol, then.

Bristol is, I think, it's amazing place to come and eat.

It is a really great food scene here, isn't it?

It is.

And it's full of really small, independent restaurants.

- It's like a mini London.

- It is.

JAMES: Would that be right?

- Absolutely.

JAMES: It's like a miniature London, isn't it?

You've got the river and great apartments.

ROMY: And then you can easily go to the countryside and get the fish from Brixham.

You can get the fish from Devon, Cornwall, good cheeses, wine, beer.

You've got great pasture, great land, great agriculture for apples, pears, and fruits and stuff.

Yes.

Best cider.

Well, that's negotiable.

Well, I have to stick to my guns.

[laughs] And I have to say I am a West Country girl, and I would not budge from my side.

Fine.

But you do get this mini London vibe.

In parts, it's like Shoreditch.

- Yes.

- There's quite trendy bits.

Yes.

People who wear dungarees, people who turn up their jeans, those kind of people.

You're so right.

It is.

[laughs] JAMES (VOICEOVER): With a population of nearly half a million people, the city of Bristol straddles the River Avon, rich in maritime history and famed for its iconic landmarks, such as the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

It also has an exciting food scene, and I'm heading to its latest edition, Wapping Wharf, a hub of independent restaurants, delis, and grocers, all built out of old shipping containers.

Welcome to Wapping Wharf.

Exactly.

And I love it already because you've got a mixture of old and new.

You've got the, I'm assuming, quite expensive apartments behind us.

ROMY: Yes.

Even the railway exists, even though it's basically for show.

But let's presume this used to be the old docklands.

It was.

And now look at how beautiful these containers are turned into.

How beautiful the containers.

I never thought somebody would say how beautiful they are.

It is amazing, though, what they do inside these things.

ROMY: All these containers are now turned into food places you can eat.

There's the meat.

Lots of different kind of things, not the same thing.

Curry Shake.

ROMY: Gopal's Curry Shack, yes.

We've got loads of other places.

I mean, a massage.

Have you tried the massage?

Have you tried to go in there?

Have I tried a massage?

I've only ever tried it once, and it was a big, burly lady that tried-- no, not again.

I love the fact that it's not a gimmick.

These are genuinely shipping containers that people have the imagination to turn it into so much more.

It is fantastic.

And you've got, literally, the river just there, with all the boats.

Yeah, it's stunning.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): There's definitely too much to see here on a fly-in visit, so Romy and I are splitting up.

She's heading to one of her favorite culinary hotspots, while I explore some of these shipping containers.

And I've been told I must check out a tiny gem of a restaurant, Box-E, which proves size doesn't matter.

I love this.

[funk music] ♪ ♪ It's certainly a box.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): It's the pride and joy of acclaimed chef Elliott Lidstone.

♪ ♪ JAMES: Well, Elliott, what do I have here, then?

So this is pan-fried hake with white crab from Devon and courgette.

Now, first of all, the randomness, I've got to love it because you're classically trained.

Yeah.

JAMES: London trained.

- Yeah.

JAMES: Multi-Michelin-star trained.

Yeah.

How on Earth-- Bristol, in a shipping container above other shipping containers in a random street on a building site?

Well, when we were in East London, me and my wife were looking for somewhere to open.

And I'm from the South West, and so is she.

She's from Bristol originally.

So we thought, why not open somewhere in Bristol and just do it the way we wanted to do it?

So it works really well-- small amount of staff, small amount of covers, and just really go for it.

When I say small amount of stuff, a small amount of covers, you couldn't fit any more people in here.

Full, how much does this seat?

So we can do 18 in one sitting.

And then when it's on the weekends, for example, we'll do 36 of an evening.

And I love the fact-- literally, everything's just here, fridges.

It's all-- you have to really think about this, though, don't you, when you're planning this out?

Definitely, yeah.

A lot of thought went into it and a lot of measuring, an awful lot of measuring.

So everything is where it should be.

And I love the fact-- you seem to enjoy it.

That's the thing.

Often, when you see chefs, particularly Michelin star chefs, it's very head-down.

You must love this, though, eh?

Yeah, it's great fun.

We've got a kitchen table, as well, which is literally in the kitchen, for four people.

So I chat to them, and we do a tasting menu for them, as well.

And I'm on complete show.

So there's no hiding.

There's no getting away from anything.

You've got to be on your game all the time.

But it's lovely being able to see everything that's going on.

This is great, by the way.

It's absolutely delicious.

And your menu, what I love about it, you keep it really simple-- four starters, three mains, a couple of desserts.

Yeah, exactly.

So we're quite limited, obviously, with how much stock I can have.

So I get deliveries every single day.

So I buy things in, I prep it, sell it, and same again each day.

So everything's super fresh.

If I wanted to come here on a Saturday night and I want a table-- any table because there's only four-- how long do you have to wait?

So you're looking at a good couple of months now on a Saturday night, yeah.

The thing about it is you can't be ill.

You can't have a day off.

- Exactly.

Now, when we go on holiday, we close the whole place, so that's it.

Close the whole place.

Everyone's off.

Just you, food, customers, and your own destiny.

Yeah.

Very happy.

Well, that's brilliant, Elliott.

Best of luck with it.

- Thanks very much.

I would say cheers to your staff, but there's just you.

Well done, mate.

ELLIOTT: Cheers.

Thank you.

- Brilliant.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And the culinary treasures of Wapping Wharf don't end at Elliott's restaurant.

There are all sorts of independent suppliers, including this top-quality butcher's.

JAMES: I couldn't not come in here.

This is fabulous.

Look at this meat.

♪ ♪ But I've spotted a little bit of Yorkshire here from the Chew Valley.

I'm going to have some Barnsley chops.

I haven't cooked those for years.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And I can't wait to get stuck in.

But to remind you, we're not up North, we're in the South West, I've found the perfect postcard backdrop for my mobile kitchen.

[classical music] Linking Bristol to Somerset, the Clifton Suspension Bridge was designed by the legendary Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

And it's been an icon of Bristol ever since it opened 150 years ago.

[pigeons coo] It is probably one of the most iconic views in the UK, to be honest, Brunel the greatest engineer that ever lived.

And he didn't just build bridges.

He built hospitals, ships, the railway, of course.

He didn't build a windbreak, or he possibly did invent one.

Because we're up here on the ridge here and I'm trying to-- I'm going to try to-- make this fantastic dish using this amazing lamb.

Now, this comes from just over there, the Chew Valley.

And you can see the pastures, why it's so rich in that lovely green, which produces amazing sheep, amazing milk, amazing beef, all that kind of stuff.

So I'm going to stick this straight into our pan, a little bit of oil.

And the Barnsley chop, look at that.

That's the saddle of the lamb.

If you cut this straight through the middle, you just end up with a chop.

But you've got a little bit of fillet, and you've got this beautiful loin.

And this can sit-- [sizzles] --straight into our pan.

They're going to fry off nicely in there.

Meanwhile, I can prepare the rest of our veg because it's kind of like a stew.

So the onions, first of all.

Cut it nice and small.

Try not to have it too thick.

[chopping] We've got the garlic.

I've got onions.

And then we've got these wonderful little tomatoes, as well-- all local, really.

Chop these up.

Right.

Check out this lamb.

Barnsley chop.

You hardly ever see these, really.

They're just delicious.

Look at that.

[gasps] [chuckles] You've got to get decent-sized, thick Barnsley chops, as well.

Beautiful.

Look at that.

You get this wonderful fat on the lamb, also.

These really are delicious.

So they're going to fry off nicely.

In here, now, I can add my garlic and my onions.

In we go with our tomatoes so they can start cooking nicely.

Now, I'm going to deglaze this, first of all, with a little bit of sherry, just a little drizzle of sherry-- just a touch.

Now, all this will start to stew down nicely.

And now we can add our spices-- whatever you've got left after it's blowing a gale.

But really, cinnamon is the key for this one.

If you're thinking about a little bit of that tagine-y sort of flavor.

Now, I could put chili in this, but it's probably going to hit our second cameraman.

We've got a bit of nutmeg, a bit of mixed spice.

I did want to put saffron in it, as well, but that's gone.

Now, you get fined 75 quid if you litter in Bristol.

Somebody get that before we run out of money.

Lovely.

In we go with our little sultanas, as well.

A few bits of this.

And then this is where we add the ginger and the turmeric.

Now, if you want heat into this-- not chili heat but spicy heat-- you keep the skin on ginger.

Look at this.

You get this amazing ginger paste.

And then we grab some turmeric, and do it the same.

Just grate it like that.

So meanwhile, this needs to stew.

I'm going to clear up the rubbish, while you enjoy Bristol.

Off you go.

[soothing music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I've collected everything.

It really has got a fascinating history, Bristol, particularly the spice trade and the sherry trade, of course.

And that all links in with Brunel because he built a lot of the shipyards, a lot of the ships-- the world's biggest ship, at that particular time.

He was an amazing man.

I wonder if he liked lamb.

Look at it.

It's just simmering away nicely there.

It's nice and sweet.

Now, we're going to sweeten this up just a little bit with some almonds.

We're going to grab some salt and pepper.

[grinding] And then I love putting this in it-- honey-- honey, honey, honey.

You pop the honeycomb, as well as runny honey.

You don't want too much of it.

You're not creating a dessert.

But this is where us Brits love this sweetness with the spice.

And then, finally, I've just got some coriander.

Now, I would chop this, but we'll properly get into trouble, so I'm going to rip it up and put it in there.

[lively music] I can lift these out.

[gasps] ♪ ♪ Grab yourself a plate.

And then you grab this, almost instant tagine-y tomatoes.

It's not rocket science.

It's just simple flavors.

But you get these wonderful spices.

This sherry, the honey, it gives it this great little sweetness.

And then you top it with a little bit of the North and the Barnsley chop.

Well, there you have it, lamb from literally just over those hills with spices that link into the industry that that man created so well.

Cheers, fella.

It's good, that.

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): From Barnsley to Bristol, or wherever you are in the world, this dish is engineered to perfection.

[driving music] I'm in the port city of Bristol.

And now I'm off to meet an urban crop grower who's making a bit of a splash.

JAMES: Now, as you know, I love my garden, but it's quite difficult to produce stuff on scale in an urban environment like this, particularly in an industrial estate.

But I've heard about this farm-- yes, a farm on an industrial estate-- that produces food in a way that I think is completely crazy, whether or not it's true or not.

But it uses no sunlight, no soil, but with the help of eels.

It's a thing of science fiction, isn't it?

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): This is Sam Rossiter.

He's not your average veg grower.

But then again, the Bristol Fish Project isn't your average farm.

♪ ♪ Established in 2011, this place looks more rocket science than rocket leaves.

[water splashing] Now, you've got to tell me what on Earth is going on here.

Hi, James.

This is amazing.

We'll start with the basic question.

How does it all work?

So what we've got here is an aquaponics system.

And that's the growing of fish and plants together in the same system.

Why fish, and why eels?

Because there's a lot of them in here.

So as any fish and, in our case, eels going about their lives, they excrete ammonia out of their gills.

And that ammonia goes into the water and, if left in a closed system, would eventually poison the fish.

So what we do is we pump the water out of this tank, up into this grow bed system.

And what happens there is that the beneficial bacteria in the beds convert those ammonias to nitrites and then nitrates, and so the plants can grow.

And then we can harvest the plants and take the waste out as food.

And the water flows back in, and the eels are happy within that closed system.

JAMES: I love this.

This is a bit Willy Wonka-ish isn't it, really?

But it's a fun-- have we been doing this for long?

Is there many people doing this?

Certainly in Australia and in America, there's an established aquaponics sector.

And there's great potential for it in Africa and other arid countries.

The water efficiency is fabulous with this system.

And why eels?

Well, eels are critically endangered.

We've lost 95% of the wild stock over the last 40 years, so population has completely crashed.

JAMES: I never knew that.

So that's for a number of reasons.

Climate change will play a role.

Habitat loss will play a role.

JAMES: So what happens to these eels?

Do they go back?

So 70% of the eels will be released back into the wild in quite a targeted way.

That'll support their regeneration and growth.

And what happens to the other 30%?

We'll raise 30% of them all as a food.

So we'll smoke those, or we may be able to sell them for sushi and sashimi.

And the idea is that that will provide some revenue that will then support the whole model to continue.

JAMES: I think it's brilliant.

Never seen anything like it, to be honest with you.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): What a great system.

Sam isn't just about saving local eels.

He's able to grow crops to order.

JAMES: So this looks interesting.

This is the small little shoots.

Yeah.

So we've just recently replanted this bed with Japanese greens that we're growing for a local chef here.

JAMES: So how long does it take for a shoot like this to grow into what looks ready to harvest, which is what we've got in here?

How long does that process take?

We're looking at something like about 20, 25 days.

It depends a little bit on the temperature and the time of year but about 20 days.

JAMES: And the great thing about this is there's no dirt on it, I suppose, is there, really?

It's just, wash off the root, and it's done.

SAM: Yeah, it is a nice, clean product.

It's got me thinking now-- pond, greenhouse, pond, greenhouse.

Yeah, it's brilliant.

Love it.

Absolutely love it.

What a magical thing.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Seeing all those Japanese greens and fish has inspired me to create a rather special recipe.

Now, this is a great dish.

It's beetroot-cured salmon with all these wonderful Asian greens turned into a salad in the end.

But it's all really about the salmon and the beetroot marinade.

So the first thing we do is prepare our salmon.

Now, this is a farmed salmon, as opposed to wild salmon, that you get on the River Severn.

All I've done, really, with this is just fillet it and then just trim up the fish, trim up any little bits of fattiness, particularly this belly bit at the front.

We want to trim that right off, like that.

Now, when you think about this, think about gravlax, that kind of stuff.

It's basically curing the fish.

So with gravlax, you start off with salt and sugar.

With beetroot, you start off with beetroot.

So I'm going to pop the cooked beetroot in the blender together with some table salt.

And use double the quantity of salt to sugar, caster sugar.

And then we just blend it.

[whirs] And while that's blending, we can prepare our tray.

So get yourself a big tray, and line it with cling film.

And really well line it.

The thing about this is you don't want it to stain your kitchen utensils because it's going to sit in that marinade for 24 hours, so plenty of cling film.

Now, you can see what you end up with is this purple puree, really.

And with this, you just sprinkle it on the base of your cling film.

And then grab your salmon, your lovely piece of salmon.

Leave the skin on it, as well.

And pop this on top of your beetroot.

And then take the remaining bit of the beetroot and pour that over the top.

[mellow guitar music] And just coat the fish with all this.

And just clingfilm this up.

So you're creating a little parcel.

This is going to cure, now, in the fridge nice and simply.

Now, what you'll end up with is this mixture.

The beetroot goes a lot darker.

You can see that.

Now, the easiest way to do this is over a sink, to be honest with you.

Take it to the sink.

Get some cold water running.

And then lift your salmon out.

And then just rinse it under cold water.

♪ ♪ You want to get rid of all that salt and sugar and beetroot on both sides.

♪ ♪ And then get yourself a cloth and just pat it dry.

This reminds me of a producer that I once worked with.

She got a deal on a spray tan while we were out filming.

That's the color that she went.

Poor girl.

So with this salmon, you can cling film it again, pop it in the fridge, and it will last for a week.

And then you can take slices as and when you need it.

But I'm going to serve it with a wonderful little salad.

I've got these wonderful Asian greens here, a little bit of apple, a few bits of radishes, nice bit of fennel.

Just slice this nice and thin.

With the fennel, you want to get it nice and thin, as well.

Radishes, thinly sliced.

♪ ♪ So you've got the apple, the fennel, the radish.

And then you've got the center parts of this lovely bok choy because these small little leaves are delicious.

Water greens, they you go in.

I've got some beautiful dill, of course.

And then the dressing, all I'm going to use is just a little bit of oil, extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice-- nothing else, really, just the flavor of that.

Try not to overcomplicate it.

Some black pepper and a pinch of salt.

And then we can turn our attention to this amazing salmon.

Look at that beautiful color.

And then this is why it's important to leave the skin on it because it's actually easier to carve it.

So you're going to lose the first part of it.

And as you cut through, you cut through thin enough until you just about get to where the skin, or the meat part, changes color and goes brown.

And you just lift the knife up.

[guitar music] ♪ ♪ You get this gorgeous color where the beetroot has cured the salmon.

And then we can just literally just put that on the plate.

You want to get this as thin as you possibly can.

♪ ♪ A lovely bit of fish.

And then you just serve it with a simple salad.

You don't really need anything else.

So there you have it, beetroot-cured salmon with a simple Asian green salad with apple.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Nutritious and delicious, the perfect tribute to Bristol's sustainable Fish Project.

[lively music] I'm in Bristol with my tour guide, local award-winning Chef Romy Gill.

She's been giving us a tour of the latest food hotspots.

And now she's going to show us around her favorite local store, which she considers to be one of Bristol's best kept culinary secrets-- until now.

Bristol is so known for its multicultural community.

So today, I've come here to one of my favorite shops in Bristol.

And it's got everything you need.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ This is one of the reasons I absolutely love this shop, because there are so many vegetables.

You won't be able to find it anywhere else except here.

And that reminds me of how my mom used to cook me all the different vegetables.

And it really, really makes me feel that I am at home, makes me so, so happy to come here in this shop.

It's beautiful.

♪ ♪ There is another one reason I absolutely love this shop.

I really like coming here to try all the delicious sweets.

♪ ♪ Hello, Abdul.

How are you?

Hi, Romy.

How are you?

I'm good.

What brings you to this part of the city, then?

ROMY: Your shop is one of my favorite shops in Bristol.

And I wanted to come and try some of the beautiful sweet dishes you have.

ABDUL: These are traditional Indian sweets.

They are bought for weddings, birthdays, engagements.

This is made from cashew nuts, sugar, and flour.

ROMY: The reason I like it is because it's less sweet.

ABDUL: Less sweet.

And it's got the sweetness of the cashews and that creaminess of the-- I love this.

My favorite is this one-- fresh figs with all the nuts.

I haven't tried that, so I'm dying to try that one.

Oh, you should try one of these.

I need to try that one, yes?

You'd love it, honestly.

ROMY: So, Abdul, tell me, when did you start this and how long you've been here.

The shop was started in 1978 by my father as a refugee from Uganda.

And then he started doing the sweets, which you like.

So hence, we are known as Sweet Mart.

It's become a hub for Bristol city.

A lot of communities fit in here.

We're known for our food scene now, and we supply a lot of restaurants.

We do about 11,000 items now.

For me, when I really miss home, I always go back to the sweets.

So thank you, Abdul, for letting us try these delicious Indian sweets.

I'm not going to waste this.

ABDUL: You're most welcome since you feel at home.

ROMY: Yes, it does.

I know it makes me sick at the end of the day, but I love it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Well, I'm not going to attempt Indian sweets.

Some things are best left to experts.

But I'm going to pay tribute to my Bristol tour guide with this next dish.

Now, I thought, with this, I'd do a wonderful little Indian-inspired chutney, really.

I'm going to serve this with a sardine sort of tart.

First thing, it's all about the chutney.

And I'm going to use some beautiful pears and apples.

[jazzy music] OK, when all your fruit's done, into a pan.

Just a little bit of water to start with.

Crank up the heat, and get that on.

And obviously, in chutney, we add a little bit of onion, as well.

I like to use shallots, really.

I find them much milder.

So rather than white onions, throw shallots in.

Now with, our ginger, I don't normally have many gadgets in the kitchen, but this, this is a great gadget.

This is a ginger grater.

I use it loads.

Look at that.

Straightaway, this puree of ginger, but also with the garlic, as well.

You do the same thing.

All that nice flavor.

All this go into our pan.

And now for the Indian spices.

I've got a selection of spices in here.

It's entirely up to you what you want to put in.

It's personal choice.

But I've got cumin, garam masala.

I've got some nice curry leaves and then some of this fiery chilly.

A little bit of cardamom pods.

Give it a whack.

Those seeds and everything is what we want.

We throw that in the little pot, as well.

And I love star anise.

I spent, literally, about six months just throwing star anise in everything-- chocolate cake.

It's ace.

It's a fantastic ingredient.

But it's quite fiery in terms of its flavor, quite strong in flavor.

So I'm only going to use a couple of those.

And then rather than add the spices direct into the pan, mix them with a bit of water first.

This is a great way to not burn the spices.

It's different to toasting whole spices.

Dry spices burn quite quickly.

So this, now, we want to cook gently till it starts to get this lovely sort of chutney.

And this is probably going to take about 10 minutes.

We're going to serve it with sardines in a nice little tart.

But it all starts with puff pastry.

Now, all-butter puff pastry is what you've got to look out for, simple as that.

But what I'm going to do is take our puff pastry, plenty of flour on the surface, as well, and then roll this out.

[funk music] Now, roll it up.

♪ ♪ Onto the tray.

So just to help it get rid of the moisture that's created from the steam so I don't get a soggy base, we dock it with a knife.

So once you get to that stage, we can grab some egg wash.

Brush it all over with the egg yolk.

So once you've got it painted all over-- look at the color of that egg yolk, it's beautiful-- we can turn our attention to our sardines.

Now, these little fellas, when these are fresh, they're absolutely amazing.

We just press down the backbone.

What this will do is just lift off the bones.

And pull out the central rib cage.

We can snip this off.

Turn them over.

You get these amazing sardines.

So just continue to do this.

Now, you can take the heads off if you want.

It's entirely up to you if you don't want eyes looking at you.

[funk music] So once you've taken the majority of the bones out of these, what I'm going to do is just put them just on a little tartlet like this.

Now, you need to make sure the pastry's reasonably thin for this.

Otherwise, it won't be cooked underneath.

It's just going to sit on there.

Leave a little border around the edge, as well, so it keeps all those lovely juices.

And then, finally, what I love with sardines is bacon.

For that, we use this dry-cured bacon.

And you just take pieces of it and just pop it on the top.

If you want to cover up the heads, now's your chance.

Then all we do now is just take a little drizzle of olive oil over the top-- just a touch.

Black pepper.

[grinding] And salt-- not too much because you've got the bacon.

Straight in the oven, 15 minutes.

♪ ♪ So the tartlet's not far off.

I'm just going to take a little bit of parsley.

♪ ♪ [sizzling] Look at this.

♪ ♪ I'm just going to grab the parsley and just sprinkle it over the top.

♪ ♪ Slide that off.

And then you can just chop this up and serve it warm.

This really is a dish that you want to serve warm.

And then you've got this amazing, Indian-inspired chutney to go with it.

♪ ♪ So there you have it.

Not only does this dish smell delicious, it tastes as good as it looks.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Trust me, it does.

My simple, stunning sardine tart with a Romy-inspired spiced chutney.

[energetic music] I've been touring Bristol with local chef Romy Gill, and I've loved seeing all this cosmopolitan city has to offer.

But beyond the urban grind are rolling pastures ideal for rearing animals.

So I'm on my way to meet a livestock farmer who's renowned for producing some of the finest meat in the world.

Nestled in the beautiful Wye Valley is Huntsham Farm, which is owned and run by rare breed farmer Richard Vaughan.

It's been in his family for nearly 400 years.

And today, the farm rears three specific breeds of livestock to the highest of standards-- Ryeland sheep, Longhorn cattle, and Middle White pigs.

Well, Richard, first of all, it's a fabulous area to have a farm, anyway, isn't it, really?

Very pretty, the Wye Valley, yeah.

I spent my childhood like this-- well, not in there but literally smelling like this because we were pig farmers.

But I've never seen sows, particularly with young ones, so chilled out.

Well, it's the way we treat them, way we look after them.

So tell me about the Middle Whites, then, because, as a pig, these are really rare.

Yeah, the Middle White, in the '30s, reigned supreme and was called the London porker.

And in that time, it was exported to Japan.

The Japanese consider it the finest pork pig in the world.

They've put a monument up in honor of the breed.

And it's said the emperor will only eat pork from Middle Whites.

The problem with these, from a commercial point of view, if you're trying to produce cheap pig meat, you just haven't got enough pigs.

If you're trying to produce something that people go wow about, that's the pig to start with.

So we've seen the pigs.

Can we look at some more?

- Yeah, of course.

We've got the cattle and the sheep.

Sounds pretty good.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Richard is clearly not a man who settles for second best.

And that's the way it should be.

Much like a good grape makes a fine wine, these animals aren't just well looked after, they're bred to perfection.

These are Ryeland sheep.

Look amazing.

Well, they were bred in the Ross area of Herefordshire and were always called the sweet meat of Herefordshire.

And are these like the pigs, difficult to produce?

Yes, they're not as productive as modern sheep, but they do taste delicious.

A two-star Michelin chef rang me one day and said he'd just eaten some.

Now, I know this guy.

This is Raymond Blanc, isn't it?

RICHARD: That's Raymond Blanc, yeah.

JAMES: What was he using it for?

Well, he wanted to use it for the state visit for President Sarkozy when he came over here.

JAMES: Well, from happy sheep, happy pigs, to happy cattle because I've heard that your beef is second to none.

Well, we do Longhorn cattle, so let me show you the Longhorns.

They're on down here.

JAMES: I'm looking forward to it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): So pork for the emperor of Japan, lamb for the president of France.

Who's buying the beef?

RICHARD: Well, these are some of our Longhorns.

The Longhorn was the breed that made England famous for roast beef.

We grow these slowly, deliberately.

So we typically take them up to about 30 months.

To my way of thinking, the older animal has more intense, beefy flavor.

And Heston chose my Longhorn beef for his idea of perfection.

Well, if it's good enough for him, Richard, it's good enough for me.

It's fantastic.

What an amazing place you've got here.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm so impressed.

I cannot tell you.

I've got to take some with me.

But I don't just want the beef.

RICHARD: Well, there you are, James.

There's a bit of pig, bit of beef, bit of lamb.

Happy eating.

Richard, you're a star.

You're a big crew, aren't you?

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And I found a rather unusual but fitting spot to set up my mobile kitchen.

[lively music] ♪ ♪ Underneath the world-famous Royal Forest of Dean is a cave system that's been mined for iron ores and precious ochres for more than 4,500 years.

[water splashes] JAMES: This really is an amazing place.

And I reckon just this mine goes on for about 20 miles and joins on with three other mines.

And I can't think of any better dish, particularly down here in these caves, than to use this amazing meat and create an iconic dish that you never really see on the menu nowadays, a mixed grill.

I'm going to serve it with a peppercorn sauce-- really simple.

So the first thing I'm going to do is cook our steak.

And for that, all we want to do is just grab a little bit of oil, not too much, and then grab your steak.

I'm not going to season this till after it's cooked.

And then this just goes onto a hot griddle.

[sizzles] And you want to cook this for no more than about 5, 6 minutes.

While that's on the griddle, we can turn our attention to our lamb chops again.

Because you've got this fat on there, you hardly need any fat, as in oil, over the top.

It's just relying on the quality of the meat.

That's the key to a good-quality mixed grill, particularly on a griddle like this, where you want it really nice and hot where you get these lines over the top.

By seasoning it, it just burns the salt and pepper, anyway.

It just falls off.

You're better off doing it afterwards.

I'll quickly wash my hands.

And when you're using a griddle pan like this, leave it enough time for it to just naturally lift off.

If it doesn't come off after about 2 minutes, the griddle's not hot enough.

But also, you've been too keen.

You want to leave it on a little bit.

So when you come to that stage, you get these beautiful lines on it.

Then, and only then, do you turn the lamb, like that.

Same with the steak.

Just check that out.

Mmm.

Fantastic.

When you get really, really good-quality meat, it's guaranteed, really.

Look at the crispy fat.

It's exactly what you want.

When I was thinking of dishes to cook, it's quite difficult to cook in a cave, anyway, but you're thinking of iconic sort of dishes that have fallen out of favor over the years.

And the mixed grill has got to be one of them.

You have it when you're on holiday in Spain in those classic Spanish restaurants, an English mixed grill, those ones.

And we just leave it to rest.

As important as it is to get good-quality meat, whatever you do, you need to leave it to rest.

So at the same time as we've got the lamb on, we'll start to cook our sausages.

It's just going to go straight on, as well.

And our kidney-- kidney's an essential thing with mixed grill, really.

You don't have to use it.

But pig's or lamb's kidney is really good.

So pop your kidney on.

[lively music] I mean, how good does that look?

♪ ♪ So we take the kidneys off.

And, again, leave it to rest slightly.

Don't just put it straight on the plate.

This steak is ready.

Just look at that beautiful piece of rump steak.

You don't want to overcook it.

And look at this pork.

I mean, I haven't seen pork as good as this, to be honest with you.

I just know it's going to taste amazing.

It's like the best back bacon.

Just cook it one side.

No seasoning, as well, for this one.

Just rely on all that nice fat to flavor it all nicely.

And for our sauce, I'm going to go pretty iconic, really, for this one, classic peppercorn sauce.

The peppercorns, really, I've got here.

We've got our white, pink.

We've got green, and we've got black-- different variants with different heats, different flavors, different strengths.

What I want to do for this, first of all, is just grab a little bit of shallot.

You don't have to put onions with it, but I think it benefits from it, as well.

But just keeping it really simple.

I'm actually so tempted to get a lamb chop, to be honest, and eat this while I'm doing this.

But grab yourself a little bit of shallot, touch of garlic, not too much.

While that's happening, of course, check on your pork.

Just look at that pork.

Delicious.

There isn't such a thing as good cheap food.

There really isn't.

Because you've seen the amount of time that Richard takes over it.

It's a labor of love, really.

And the care that he looks after the animals reflects on the food that you're cooking.

You have to do so little to it.

Just grill it.

Just do nothing else, and appreciate the quality of it more than anything else.

But a little bit of garlic, just a touch, like that.

And then we'll just turn this over.

[lively music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So our sausages are cooked.

They're done.

I think what I'll do is I'll just take this grill, just turn it slightly like that.

Because then what you do, you can't have mixed grill, of course, without tomatoes.

I'm just going to cut a few tomatoes up, just stick them on.

You could put a few leeks on if you wanted to.

It's entirely up to you.

[sizzles] ♪ ♪ Like that.

And then our sauce.

So for this, tiny little bit of butter in the pan, you don't want to brown the shallots and garlic.

So just basically just put these in, and just sweat them nicely for a couple of minutes.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Now, it's purely an option for this.

You could use brandy.

You can use mustard.

If you're going to use mustard, just a little bit of Dijon would be fine.

Don't use English mustard-- way, way too strong for this sort of stuff.

But a little bit of brandy, not too much.

I never thought I'd be doing this in a cave, to be honest with you.

But burn off the brandy, get rid of that alcohol, so you're just left with the flavor of this.

And then really good-quality beef stock, the liquid beef stock.

You can't really make this out of the powdered beef stock.

You don't get the same texture.

And reduce this down.

And while this is reducing down, we can season our lovely meat here.

I can't stress the importance, really, of allowing meat to rest once it cooks.

And the meat will taste very, very different.

So with this, I've got this wonderful little bit of pork.

We've got the lamb.

We, of course, have got these delicious sausages, as well.

We've got to put them on.

It is absolutely spectacular, this sort of stuff.

But look at this.

This is a proper mixed grill.

And then, of course, we've got our steak.

And that is what a rump steak should look like.

And you can tell when you're carving it.

I just know it's going to be good.

And then, finally, what we're going to do is get some peppercorns.

You can crush these.

I've just lightly crushed a few bits of green peppercorn.

So we're going to pop them in, as well.

We'll put a few pink ones in there, as well.

These are much more floral in terms of taste.

A little bit of fresh thyme.

Just rip up a few bits of that.

All the while, you're allowing this to reduce down.

[lively music] We'll grab our tomatoes.

This is a proper dish.

And then you bring it all together with just a touch of double cream-- not loads of double cream.

Now, always, always with a good-quality sauce, you finish it with a touch of butter, a small amount of seasoning-- salt, particularly, because, obviously, you've got the peppercorns in there.

♪ ♪ Little taste.

♪ ♪ Look at this.

If there's any chefs there watching-- and some of them are because, every now and then, they get an afternoon off-- just go back and write your menu again, will you, and just put mixed grill on it?

I'm not saying do this sort of size portion, for sure.

♪ ♪ That, ladies and gentlemen, is a proper plate of food-- mixed grill with a classic peppercorn sauce.

I've got to find my way out of here now.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): There you have it, a hearty feast fit for a king-- or a caveman.

Delicious.

What an amazing time I've had exploring the South West, but it's Bristol that's really captured my imagination.

Do you know what?

Bristol has surprised me on all different levels.

And seeing the new parts and the old parts has been quite fascinating.

To meet Romy was just brilliant.

She inspires you in all levels, really.

What a great personality.

And she's a real passionate foodie, like many people who live around here.

It's got a real scene, a real buzz about it, is Bristol.

And it's a place, definitely, where I'm coming back, not just to see that but to taste the food.

[energetic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪